The Black Notebooks is the most profound document I have read on racism in America today… [It] is not just one of the best books on race I have ever read but just simply one of the best books I have ever read. The Black Notebooks is one of the most extraordinary and courageous accounts of race in this country, seen through the eyes of a light-skinned black woman and a respected American poet. It challenges all our preconceived notions of what it means to be black or white, and what it means to be human.